The automatic haematology analyzers (automatic haematology machines) currently on the market are providing more and more possibilities for analyses and classifications of the elements analyzed.
Fluorescence measurement, already widespread in flow cytometry, is mainly used for the classification of elements by immunophenotyping. In the routinely-used automatic haematology machines, it is above all dedicated to the detection of supra-vital dyes used as molecular probes for the quantification of nucleic acids or other cellular components.
The use of immunological probes in routine haematology has not yet become widespread although a few embryonic tests have already seen the light of day with different constructors.
For example, BAYER (Bayer Diagnostics, Tarrytown, N.Y., USA), with the BAYER-TECHNICON H*1 was the first to propose, in lymphocyte typing, the use of cocktails of antibodies for determining different types of lymphocytes. In this case, the measurement of the antigen expressions being carried out not by fluorescence but by the measurement of light absorbance generated by an avidine-peroxidase compound having a great affinity for biotin, itself coupled to an antibody. Said antibody is specific to the target antigens of the surface molecules specific to the cell types characterized (CD4, CD8, CD2, CD19).
The ABBOTT CD4000, from ABBOTT (Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill., USA), proposes analysis using two fluorescence wavelengths for carrying out, inter alia, immunophenotypings. The patent WO 98/02727 of Abbott Laboratories describes an apparatus of this type, making it possible to carry out marking with an antibody on a total blood sample. ABBOTT describes in detail in the patent an apparatus intended to produce antibody-antigen reactions on a total blood sample.